St. Lawrence High School has been associated with Cidermatics Pvt Ltd. for over four years. It has been wonderful, creative and innovative journey with them. Within a few years’ time the company has set benchmarks in bridging ‘Education and Technology’. St Lawrence High School has successfully implemented Mac and iOS based ‘teaching and learning’ platforms by leveraging the potentials of iPads.In the course of my tenure as the Principal of St. Lawrence High School, we have set up the state of the art Mac Labs and iPad Labs to enable and empower teachers so that they can through this interactive platform help students comprehend even difficult topics in almost all subjects in the school. Cidermatics has played a pivotal role in training our tech teams and setting up platforms like School Manager like a Virtual Classroom, where students can visualize and learn like never before. Teachers are also able to communicate at ease through the Apple School Manager. And this has resulted in increase in our students’ performance curve. It is also noteworthy that Cidermatics has supported our vision in Education with the help the Device Enrolment Program under which we were able to successfully create uniform education policies. All our iPad devices in the campus are registered under the Device Enrolment Program, where education, content and curriculum policies have been successfully implemented. Thus, a student in the campus is now able to access pool of resources within the framework of applied policies. This in turn has enhanced security and enabled seamless exchange of resources among all stake holders: administration, teachers and students. St Lawrence has the unique concept of ‘App based Learning’, with the help of the iPad, appealing to the three modes of learning of students: auditory, visual and physical (VR). We are one of the few schools in India who has mapped the Apps from the App Store tuned to the school syllabus. Educational Apps make it more effective for subject like Science, Mathematics, Geography, History, including languages. Students get a ‘hands on’ experience of any topic with the help of Virtual Reality in our iPad Lab. It is worthwhile mentioning that the ethos of Jesuit Education and that of St. Lawrence High School is to build ‘Persons for vasudeva kutumbakam”. In this context St Lawrence educates students from all strata of society, i.e. the rich, middle class and the poor. All students have access to iPad as well as to our Mac Labs. Cidermatics has played a definitive role in helping us to blend ‘the chalk and talk’ traditional medium with Virtual Reality platforms. It is managed through an MDM that Cidermatics’s technical team helped us to set up.
Cidermatics Pvt Ltd has also helped to set up the hardware, i.e. Apple Mac Mini, Apple Server and the iMac to substantiate/back-up the software platforms and solutions. Their technical team has always extended prompt after sales and technical support so that Information Technology Systems at the School are up to date and prevent system failures. They have always been prompt in addressing hardware and software problems and thereby minimizing downtime while enhancing uptime. Thanks to Cidermatics, our teachers are no more computer shy in making lesson plans, evaluate the apps on App Store and create content, innovatively, with powerful resources provided by Apple in Education. We would also like to appreciate the security system of Apple devices that is unparalleled. Teaching and Learning is now happening effectively through the medium of iPad at St Lawrence High School. In brief the online education has been given a new dimension with the help of the iPad. A revolution has been brought about in the teaching and learning process at St. Lawrence. All of this would not have been possible without the technical knowhow and educational expertise of Cidermatics. We are very grateful to the entire team of Cidermatics Pvt Ltd, especially their Captain Mr. Amitabha Biswas. Mr. Amitabha knows what aids the teachers need to make students understand, and he also has an in-depth knowledge of what Apple has to offer in helping the teachers. It is because of this bridge that our students and teachers benefit in this teaching learning environment.
It gives me great pleasure in introducing CIDERMATICS to the Apple users as i find it a one stop solution to any software and hardware related problem. The prompt reaction time and courteous hospitality adds to their credibility . I wish them continuing success.
Dr. Shivaji Basu MS, FRCS(Edin), FRCS(ENG), Director + Head, Dept. of Urology, Fortis Hospital & Kidney Institute, Kolkata